


Sleeping with the Fishes

by xkgpg



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Accidental Kissing, Animal Death, Awkward situations, Blood, Drowning, Hurt/Comfort, Illness, Injury, M/M, Minor Character Death, RPF, Unresolved Tension, siren au, they eat fish and other sea creatures as well as humans, theyre both sirens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-07 07:03:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 19,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21453970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xkgpg/pseuds/xkgpg
Summary: Dave and Joel are sirens who lead entirely different lives. The fact that one of them is nocturnal and is the other isn’t is the least of their differences. But when they’re thrown together by chance as one of them is captured by humans and rescued by the other, they’ll have more important things to worry about.
Relationships: Joel Berghult/David P. Brown
Comments: 24
Kudos: 37





	1. Dave

**Author's Note:**

> i am gay.
> 
> Dave and/or Joel, if you ever come across this, sorry lol! im gay for the both of you and cope by projecting said gayness onto the both of you.
> 
> roomieofficial and boyinaband make more songs together challenge!! they sing and rap (respectively) so well and make amazing music on their lonesome, not to mention whenever they work together
> 
> and what mythological creature vocalizes to lure people into the water? sirens?? sounds gay to me!!
> 
> yeah that was basically my thought process in deciding to write this. im actually really trying to write it which is a surprise to me.
> 
> hope this isnt terrible! (and i know youre hoping that too, dont lie)
> 
> this is a fictional portrayal of real people (kind of like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, or any other historical fiction ever) so the characterizations arent going to be 100% true to life!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> final warning: this whole story is very cringe, but if you can make it past the first couple chapters, i promise it does get better

Matt opened his eyes, never having fell asleep. The crashing of the waves and the roaring of the wind overpowered any music playing through his earbuds and the violent shifting of the boat left him unable to settle down. Turning off his music and turning on his headlamp, Matt looked around the cabin. His friend and his friend’s father were sound asleep in their respective hammocks, not even fazed by the weather outside.

He never should’ve agreed to join his friend. Their fishing trip was illegal anyways, out of allowed fishing season by months. But hey, cash is cash. Matt wriggled into his boots and rain gear, hoping to get some fresh air. He stepped into the main cabin, quietly closing the door behind him, not that it would be heard with all the noise outside. He clomped over to the door to the stairs, took a steeling breath, and flung it open, rushing out to keep the inside as dry as possible from the powerful sea spray.

Matt kept a firm grip on the railing as he carefully climbed the metal stairs, pitch black except for the ring of light provided by his headlamp. He once more cursed the illegality of the boat. It would be nice to have some deck lights to see where he’s going! He reached the top of the stairs and emerged on the deck, spinning around once to check for any lights in the water. Nothing, as expected at this distance from shore and in this weather. Matt shuffled to the railing and watched the spray erupt along the hull of the boat.

Suddenly the cacophony of the storm seemed muted as a sound cut through all the noise. Matt tilted his head. Where was that music coming from? It sounded like one of the fast, aggressive beats that played behind his favorite genres of music. Double checking his ears and pockets alike, he confirmed that he had left his MP3 player and earbuds in his hammock. Did someone leave a radio on?

Matt slowly turned in a circle, head still tilted, trying to pinpoint the direction the beat was originating from. No, it couldn’t be a radio. They are most certainly out of any radio contact with the mainland. Maybe it was coming from the starboard side.

Gingerly crossing the shifting deck, the music seemed to be getting louder the nearer to the opposite railing he was. Right before he reached out to grab the railing, there was a massive splash and a plume of water flew up, raining down on him. When he wiped the brine out of his eyes, the beat was silenced! Mildly confused and disappointed, he readjusted his headlamp and looked over the edge of the boat, searching the choppy water, for what, Matt didn’t know. But there’s something... holy _shit_.

Bobbing about sixty feet or so out was a person. And not just any person, a person with long hair, desperately clinging to a glowing, red, cylindrical buoy, a tendril of frayed red rope drifting in the water alongside.

Matt’s mind raced. He was out of radio contact with the mainland, and besides, he wasn’t gonna call the authorities when he was on an illegal boat! If he ran inside to wake the other two, the lady (presumably) could drown in the meanwhile. Screaming against the noise of the storm, Matt called out to her(?):

“Are you okay, miss!?” He started looking around for a life preserver to toss out.

From across the waves came the response, slipping effortlessly into his mind and redirecting all his attention onto the figure in the water.

**“I’m fine, I’m alright, I’m just thoroughly soaked, forget your friends, you’ll just fight, as I’m sure you’ve already joked.”** Her yell should’ve been distorted by the distance and weather, but Matt took no notice.

“Yeah, they’re a pain at best,” he readily agreed. Why on earth did he even entertain going on this trip?

**“Help me please, I’ve caught a disease, my body freezes, body seizes, neck muscles squeeze, its pain increases!”** She slipped under the water, emphasizing her rumbling rhythmic rhyme’s impact on Matt with panic as he leaned far over the railing, reaching out as if to snatch her out of the water. She luckily resurfaced, this time not leaning her head on the buoy. The rope must’ve got caught in her hair as it appeared to attach the buoy to her scalp.

“Let me find the life preserver and I'll bring you—“

** _“NO!”_ **

All other sound seemed to die out for a few seconds and Matt was once more captivated by the figure in the water.

**“Come out here, the water’s clear. Our fate is near, I have no fear,”** Matt was already climbing over the railing, compelled by the powerful voice, **“Come, join this sphere!”**

Matt hit the water feet first, shooting down ten feet beneath the waves from sheer momentum alone, not to mention the weight of all his gear. The cold water shocked his senses and he started to panic, eyes popping open, uncaring of the salinity of the water.

_ Why was the lady rhyming?! What made me jump overboard!? Oh god, I’m going to die! _

The light of his headlamp reflected off the glossiness of long, wet hair and brought his attention back to the present. It was that lady, sinking underwater to join him. Only, it wasn’t a lady at all.

Long hair floated freely underwater, exposing a clearly masculine figure. The ‘rope’ was actually a streak in his hair, somehow glowing with red bioluminescence. Fanning out of either side of his head, where his ears would be, were fins. Matt only stopped himself from choking down water at this realization because he was paralyzed with shock at the next.

The ‘buoy’ that he was clinging so desperately to uncoiled out of its cylindrical shape, exposing it to be a glowing red tail fin, attached to a dark scaled tail.

The merman—no, _siren_—stretched out the full length of its body underwater, giving a petrified Matt a show. As far as he could tell, all of the webbing and fins, from between its fingers to the sides of its head to the powerful-looking tail, glowed that same terrifying red, glittering off the black of its hair, scales, and claws. The luminescence of that one streak of hair only made it look more menacing, highlighting the lack of white in its eyes.

The siren leisurely swam forward, humming the same tune that had lured Matt to the railing in the first place. As it approached, his headlamp illuminated its face more fully. The entire orb of its eyes were solid blue, save for cat-like slit pupils like elongated black holes. It smiled, and Matt lost a couple precious bubbles of air in horror. Its teeth could pass for human, if the glittery white things weren’t sharpened to points like so many knives.

As Matt watched, its pupils widened to near circles and its bioluminescence dimmed to non-existent. It reached out a clawed hand towards his headlamp.

“You won’t be needing this any longer, will you?”

And Matt never saw light again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i cannot write rap please dont kill me im sorry i wasnt gifted with that ability!! i also couldnt find any preexisting lyrics that fit my need but i tried!!! blease ignore the cringe


	2. Joel

Triple- and quadruple-checking that her hair was laying perfectly windswept, Lindsey clambered towards the front of the rented sailboat to pose for a perfect vacation selfie. She wasn’t immensely proud of her career as an influencer, but dammit if she wasn’t rich off of it!

Reaching the front of the narrow boat, she precariously balanced herself and awkwardly held out her arm, aiming for that perfect angle. It would’ve been way easier if she’d brought someone else with, or at least a selfie stick, but she had embarked on this trip alone and without equipment, going for that ‘free girl’ aesthetic.

Lindsey was about to press down on the screen to take a burst of photos when something _thunked_ against the side of the boat, sending her windmilling backwards and her phone slipping out of her hand and overboard.

“Dammit!” She slammed a fist against the white fiberglass floor. Now she was unable to communicate with shore because _fuck_ if she knew how to work the onboard radio. She laid there in the sun for a few moments more until gentle knocking resounded through the air, accompanying an accented voice.

“Hello? Are you alright?”

Lindsey slowly and cautiously approached the edge of the rental, confused and a bit worried that she was hearing someone else when she was all alone on the water. She peered over the edge and her jaw dropped open.

Clinging to the hull of her sailboat was an honest-to-god merman!

A long, sky-blue tail lightly flipped out of the water every couple seconds, allowing the sun to shimmer along the scales and fins. He was shirtless, of course, and his skin was tan, as one would be if they were exposed to the sun everyday, Lindsey supposed. Following the line of his spine were little blue spots, the same shade as his fins and scales. It looked like he had dipped his webbed hands in blue ink, the color fading into his skin halfway up his forearms. Sprouting out of wet blonde hair where ears would be on a human were two fins, the bright blue contrasting with his hair. What was most striking to her, though, was his face. He was sheepishly smiling up at her, exposing long canines alongside otherwise normal human teeth, but she strangely didn’t feel threatened. It must’ve been because of his eyes, so human in an otherwise alien body, shade of blue identical to the scales and webbing all round his body.

“—okay?” Lindsey shook herself out of her stupor and slapped herself across the face. Hard. When that didn’t work, she pinched her thigh and twisted the flesh, biting her lip to hold back a scream of pain. When she still didn’t wake up, she lifted her hand to her mouth and bit down as hard as she could, blood immediately gushing from the wound.

“What are you _doing!?_” She looked back up at the merman through tear blurred eyes.

“This isn’t a dream, is it,” She marveled.

“No, it's not. Here, you dropped your phone,” he quickly set the ruined electronic on the deck, “Give me your hand, I can heal it.” She blinked away the tears and saw the oh-so real expression of concern and worry on his oh-so real face.

Without another word, Lindsey offered her profusely bleeding hand to the merman who was treading water alongside her rented sailboat. He gingerly took the injured limb in his brilliant blue, webbed hands. A memory emerged from the depths of her mind: a quick snippet of a day at the aquarium as a little girl and touching the rays and sharks in the tide pool exhibit. He lifted the wound to his mouth, sunlight reflecting off of long fangs, but when he closed his mouth over the bite, he was as gentle as a breeze. The creature ran his tongue along the wounds, leaving a cool, tingling feeling in its wake. He unlatched from her hand and Lindsey watched, mesmerized, as the bite marks closed and faded before her eyes.

“Hey, you sure you’re good?” She stopped staring at her miraculously healed hand and met the merman’s electric blue eyes, his head tilted in concern and ear-fins flapping cutely.

“Y-yeah, I’ve just never met a mermaid before.” He smiled again and leveraged himself up to lean his forearms on the deck of the boat. Lindsey awkwardly scooched over to give him more room.

“I’d imagine you haven’t. Merpeople are few and far between nowadays. What are you doing out here?” He inquired, using his tail fin to splash water onto himself.

Lindsey ended up chatting with the mythological creature all day, moving to lean against the mast and watch the merman lazily circle her rental boat. Only as the sun began to set did she remember that she really should get back to shore.

“This has been an unforgettable, unbelievable day!” She crawled to the edge of the boat and sat with her feet in the water. “I really have to go back to my hotel now though.” He swam up to the edge, treading water next to her legs.

“Aww, really? I’ve had such a fun time talking to you, though. It’s not often someone actually talks to me instead of screaming and trying to escape.” His head-fins drooped and his expression fell to match. Lindsey could feel her heartstrings being pulled, but she really did have to leave. After all, her phone needed to be repaired. She told him such. His fins drooped even more, then perked back up as he nervously met her gaze.

“Before you go, can I sing you a song I heard on someone’s radio a while back? It would mean a lot to me,” his tail swished excitedly.

Lindsey was in awe of his eyes, literally glowing that lovely blue, the spots running down the center of the merman’s back illuminating to match.

“Of course,” she breathed. He set his hands on either side of her knees and started to hum a tune vaguely familiar to her. Blue claws extended and stabbed into the fiberglass frame of the boat, but Lindsey paid no mind to the imminent threat as she was captivated by his voice as soon as he started to sing.

**“I can hear her heart beat for a thousand miles,**   
**And the heavens open up every time she smiles,**   
**And when I come to her that's just where I belong,**   
**Yet I'm running to her like a rivers song,”**

She leaned forward, lost in the lyrics thrumming through her mind.

**“She's got a fine sense of humor when I'm feeling low down,**   
**And when I come to her when the sun goes down,**   
**Takes away my trouble, takes away my grief,**   
**Takes away all of my heartache, in the night like a thief.”**

The light from the creature’s eyes reflected off of his long fangs, mouth curled in glee.

**“Yes I need her in the daytime,  
** **Oh, but I need her in the night,**  
**Yes, I want to throw my arms around her,**  
**Kiss her hug her, kiss her hug her tight.****”**

Without realizing, Lindsey slid off the edge of the boat to tread water alongside the mythological being.

**“And when I'm returning from so far away,  
** **She givess me some sweet lovin', brighten up my day.**  
**Yes it makes me righteous, it makes me feel whole,**  
**And it makes me mellow down in to my soul.****”**

The pair slowly swam away from the sailboat as the sun set behind it. The line of dots down his back glowed like neon, highlighting the movement of his tail under the water.

**“She gives me love, love, love, love, crazy love,  
She gives me love, love, love, love, crazy love.** **”**

He wrapped his arms around her waist, claws digging into her flesh. She mindlessly draped her arms around his neck in return, not paying any heed to the pain.

**“She gives me love, love, love, love, crazy love,  
She gives me love, love, love, love, crazy love.** **”**

“Hey,” He roused her from the spell, “you shouldn’t make assumptions.”

“What d’ya mean?” Lindsey blinked. She looked down at the tendrils of blood spreading through the water, turned back to see the boat hundreds of feet away, and ice jolted down her spine. She started to struggle in her captor’s grasp, fruitlessly.

“I never said I was a merman.” He smiled the same smile she had first seen gracing his face, but it seemed much less sheepish and much more vicious this time around.

“I’m a siren. And you’re my dinner. And no, that’s not an assumption.”

Her scream turned into gargles as Lindsey was dragged down into the depths.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the song lyrics i used is “Crazy Love” originally by Van Morrison but specifically the cover by Michael Bublé. i needed a cheezy love song that wouldve probably been played on the radio at some point, and it fit the bill!


	3. Capture

Dave swam out of the crevice he had crammed himself into when dawn had first started illuminating the water. He pulled a few tight curves and tricky maneuvers to stretch out his muscles and fully wake him up for the night. The siren was well rested, well fed, and well on his way to different waters. There’s only so many times that humans will keep boating out to where others have drowned, and already the number of trips to this particular stretch of sea were decreasing.

Humming out a low bass note, he fully flared the fins on either side of his face to funnel the sound back to him. Reverberations bounced back to him and painted a wireframe image of his surroundings in his brain. No other fish up and about, and no tricky geography to navigate around! Excellent. Dave didn’t see any need to utilize his bioluminescence, so he kept swimming in the dark, vocalizing a backing track to the lyrics running through his mind.

He tilted upwards and swam towards the surface until his echolocation didn’t return any reflections off of the ocean floor. Opening his eyes, he saw nothing but open water, dimly lit by moonlight filtered through meters upon meters of depth. A click confirmed that nothing was about, and the siren closed his slitted eyes again, gently detangling his long hair with his claws.

Dave took the time to reflect on where he was in life. He, alongside his sister, learned to speak some human languages. They were able to overcome their lack of singing power through making other music: beatboxing and rapping. The pair of them had capsized entire boats when they worked together.

He grinned to himself at the memory of a younger Dave and Hannah curling their tails around each other and poring over a human book, deciphering it line by line. They worked well together, but both of them wanted more. Hannah left to travel to the waters surrounding Asia, enamored with their music. Dave ended up in waters less traveled, perfecting his hunting technique and refining his wordplay.

He supposed he was content, though it was lonely at times. He was always well-fed, and the hunt never ceased to excite him in the moment. He just wanted something more, something new.

_ Not that! _

Dave flinched backwards and opened his eyes as his body came into contact with rough fibers. It was pitch dark enough that even his enhanced night vision didn’t make anything clearer. A short screech resounded off of nothing. The siren’s fins and hair started to glow red. There, floating inches away from his nose and tangled around his flailing arms, was a net.

He thrashed his powerful tail, trying to propel himself free of the synthetic fibers. His heart started beating faster with panic when the net only tightened around his torso. Fully lighting up the vicinity like an underwater beacon, he tried to maneuver his body into a position in which he could utilize his claws to tear free, screeching in frustration and worry as the net fully tangled around his tail, limiting his movement to small jerks.

The siren’s survival instincts took over and the creature went wild. Dave contorted and threw his body around with all the strength he had, chewing and scratching fruitlessly at the net, screaming and roaring all the while. The angry siren continued to struggle even as he was fully cocooned in the material.

The night slowly passed, the creature’s bioluminescence dimming to nothing in order to dedicate more energy to fighting for freedom. As dawn illuminated the water, his voice died, hoarse and overtired, but still he kept wriggling.

The sun rose to its peak, struggling siren still ensnared in the net. He was growing progressively weaker in his movement, periodically growling at nothing in particular, throat still too sore to shout.

The sun started its descent, and Dave slumped in his confines. He was stuck. His muscles were screaming at him, his voice was broken, and his energy reserves were almost depleted. He dangled underwater from a buoy above, almost mocking him.

_ Look who got killed by a buoy now, eh? _

Dave flung his head upright from its slump and fluttered his ear-fins, zeroing in on a low rumble approaching from the distance. With his final burst of energy, he twisted and turned, trying to face the direction that whatever was making the sound was coming from.

There, appearing as a shadow from the waning daylight at the very edge of his vision, was what could only be a boat. Most likely a fishing boat, as the violent vibrations of the water from the motor started to slow to a stop and the shadow drifted closer to the buoy.

Animalistic with terror, the siren cowered away from the massive shadow, flattening his head-fins and hissing, body illuminating as much as possible with his low energy. The buoy above was lifted out of the water, and the net, along with its captive, was slowly dragged to the surface. A last-ditch effort struggle only succeeded in tuckering out the creature again, leaving him twitching and rocking back and forth from the tow rope.

The surface approached. Dave breached the waves, and hissed with as much vitriol as he could muster at the humans leaning over the side of the boat. They immediately started yelling and pointing, voices overlapping too much for Dave to decipher. He was lowered back under the water only to be lifted out again, this time greeted by the same humans wearing ear protection.

His entire body had never been out of the ocean all at the same time before. When the pulley held the siren suspended over the deck of the boat, he felt the weight of his body pulling him down like chains wrapped around his aching, overworked muscles. Dave stopped struggling and let his body be lowered to the boat. He laid there as the humans approached, quietly growling in warning. He felt a warm appendage touch his tail fin and thrashed with all he had left, screaming in rage and fear. He could see the humans fall back and press over their ears, but he wasn’t present enough in the moment to try and exploit that. He screamed and cried and flopped back and forth for all he was worth. His life was going to end, he was sure of it.

Dave wanted oblivion to come sooner.

The mythological being whipped his head back onto the metal boat deck and finally fell entirely still, sunset glittering off of rapidly evaporating water.


	4. Rescue

Eyes snapped open in the dark. The siren lit up his eyes and the spots down his spine, looking around for any danger.

_Nothing_.

Joel crept out from underneath the overhang he typically slept under and rose to the surface of the water. He tilted his head so one of his ear-fins was above and the other was below, listening for anything unusual. Aside from the distant crashing of waves and the gargling of nocturnal sea animals, nothing caught his attention.

Joel let his body start to sink back down to the ocean floor, dimming back down to just enough for him to see. When he was halfway down, his body jolted. Waves of desperation and frustration and fear, as palpable as if they were his own, flowed through him. And there, right on the edge of his range of hearing, was a low keen, vibrating across an unknown distance without fading. The keen of another siren in distress.

He shot back up to the surface and let out a glass-shattering, high pitched scream, both above and below the water. It was enhanced with his powers and should travel as far as need be to the other siren. Joel half submerged his head again and anxiously awaited a response.

A hoarse response, sounding more like a sob then a scream, was returned to him on the night breeze. It had cut off far too quickly for the other’s voice to not be damaged. Joel identified which direction the cry had come from and set off at a speed just slightly slower than a sprint, trying to conserve some energy to assist the other if need be.

Swimming a couple feet below the open air, his head-fins flattened and his eyes narrowed in anger. The loud thrumming of a boat engine quickly grew louder, most likely with a captive siren on deck. Joel’s body lit up again as he approached the side of the fishing boat, chirping up at it. A weak voice chirped back, signaling that the other was alone and it was safe for Joel to be near.

Joel dived down and rocketed straight up, grabbing onto the metal rail. He nearly slipped back down with shock and extended his claws both to keep his grip and to expel some of his anger.

Sure enough, lying prone on the deck was another siren, tied tightly in a fishing net, but that was only the beginning. The artificial lights reflected off of blood pooled around them from where the net had dug in too tightly. Their long brown and red hair was dry and tangled. Their red fins looked like they were a couple wrong moves from cracking. Their scales were dull and dry. Joel’s claws squealed against the metal railing and the other siren laboriously turned their head to face him. There was blood trickling out of the corners of their cracked lips and two bruises ringing their nearly closed eyes.

Joel managed to contain his fury and spoke lowly.

“Hey. I’m Joel.”

“Nice t’meet ya Joel, can you please help me?” His whisper sounded more like a whine.

_Now's not the time for introductions, Joel, save him already!_

“Can you harmonize with me? I’ll sing and get the humans out of the picture and then get you free.”

“My voice is toast, and even if it wasn’t, I can’t sing very well at all. Certainly not well enough to harmonize on the spot.” Even though he was very obviously exhausted and ill, the other siren was extremely eloquent and melodic. Joel wracked his brain for another plan. He’d never met a siren who couldn’t sing by their own claim before.

“Alright, you sing, it doesn’t have to be words, just notes. _I’ll_ harmonize with _you_.”

“But if _you’re_ harmonizing with _me_, won’t the humans go towards me instead?”

“...usually, but you’re really tired and I’m probably louder than you, so I think my power will outweigh yours and draw them to me.”

The other siren closed his swollen eyes and rested his skull back on the deck.

“Okay. I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to hold a note, especially in my state, but I’ll try for as long as I can. Thank you, Joel.” His red tail fin tried to wave, but the movement made the siren wince and drop it back down with a dry smack.

“You know, I never caught your name.”

“Dave.”

“Alright Dave, I'll save you soon.”

“My hero.” Dave spat sarcastically, an irritated ear-fin flick prompting another wince, “Please!”

Joel could sense the other siren meant no harm. He had a fighting spirit and was very intelligent, just from what Joel gathered from their short conversation. He fell back into the water and dimmed his bioluminescence again, swimming back from the boat a bit. His head resurfaced and he called out to Dave, “Go for it!”

A haunting howl rose from the boat, rising in volume and pitch until it lay suspended on a note, voice smooth, no trace of roughness or hoarseness. The captive siren started a predictable pattern of four notes, looping over and over. Joel opened his mouth and started to sing along. He harmonized both above and below, changing up his rhythms and notes to become the lead of the melody they were creating.

Joel felt the vibrations from the boat’s engine abruptly cut out and heard doors opening from above. Soon, the silhouettes of twelve people appeared on the railing, superimposed over the slowly lightening sky. One by one the humans clambered over the railing and dropped into the sea, paddling towards the siren in the water like iron to a magnet. The boat’s crew were all in the water now.

As if their minds were linked, Joel and Dave simultaneously switched notes to one not in the original progression of four, painful and jarring. The humans dropped like stones under the surface, bubbles rising opposite as they forcefully let out all their air. Joel followed them under, sustaining the note until he was certain all twelve had drowned.

He shot up vertically once more, leaping out of the water and grasping the railing, slithering through the gap onto the deck. Dave was curled up as much as was possible in his binds, breath wheezing and body trembling. Joel crawled over as fast as he could, lifting up the siren’s upper body to rest on his.

“I’m gonna get you in the water, don’t worry, I’ve got you.” The only response he got was a near silent hum and a head lolling on his shoulder. Retracting the claws of one hand, he wrapped one arm around the bundle of siren and used the claws of the other to drag them both back across to the edge of the boat.

“Sorry about this, we’re almost there!” Joel shoved the other’s body through the gap in the railing, drawing pained whines and hisses from his mouth. The bound siren dropped into the water and Joel swiftly wriggled through the gap and dived down to join him.

As soon as he had hit the water, Dave fell unconscious once more, body limp with relief. Sunlight refracted through the cloud of blood being washed off his body, coloring the surrounding water red. Joel gently gathered him in his arms and started the swim back to his little rock overhang. He left the bodies of the crew to rot.


	5. Untangled

When Dave came to, he was being gently set down on a flat rock, shadowed from the midday sun by an overhang. Most importantly, he was off of that fishing boat and underwater. He opened his mouth wide and gulped it down, trying to rehydrate the inside of his body. No blood hung around him, so his wounds were probably clean. He was extremely weak and injured with a ruined voice, but at least he wouldn’t get infected! Well, he wouldn’t get infected once the net was off.

The other siren, the one who had helped him escape, moved over his face and smiled when he saw Dave’s eyes open.

“You’ve been rescued!” He grinned cheekily. Dave flicked his fins in irritation and was gratified to find the movement didn’t make him want to cry in pain. He smiled slightly, not enough to pull at the scabs on his lips.

“Thank you _so_ very much, Joel. I’ll never be able to repay you.” He was entirely sincere and projected that into his words, earnestly looking up at the other. Joel’s cheeks dusted with pink for a moment and his smile transformed from shit-eating to embarrassed.

“...Let’s just focus on healing you up for now.” Dave was fine with that. Joel raised his hands to grab at the net and Dave started upon seeing them. Like Dave, Joel’s hands were webbed, but unlike Dave, they were blue up until his mid forearms and without visible claws. Dave’s lower arms and hands were the same color as his skin (aside from his red webbing and black claws) and so were the lower arms and hands of every other siren he’s come across in his lifetime.

Joel started tugging at the rope gently, trying to unwrap the other, and Dave took the opportunity to further inspect his savior. Joel seemed to have all the same fins in the same locations as Dave, the only difference being they were all the same color as his scales rather than contrasting against them. His eyes were strikingly human-like compared to the more animal-esque eyes Dave has seen in his own reflection. His teeth as well were more like a human’s than Dave’s; the only difference between his mouth and a human’s was the sharpness and length of both his sets of upper and lower canines.

“I’m going to try to cut the net away.” Joel raised his hands and Dave watched, astonished, as blue claws extended from them. He carefully lifted part of the net and inserted a claw under it. He sharply pulled upwards, trying to cut clean through, but the plastic rope really didn’t want to let go. He started sawing and the material tore after a couple seconds. He picked up the next piece and started sawing.

“Can you bioillumimate?” Dave wanted to know. Joel paused for a second, then continued cutting through the net.

“Yup, my eyes and a line of dots down my back and tail.” He glowed for a moment to demonstrate. “Can you?” Rather then answer verbally, Dave illuminated his fins and hair streak. Joel watched appreciatively, peeling away some of the net wrapped around Dave’s torso.

“Your eyes are different than mine as well, I didn’t notice earlier. Okay, pull your right arm out of the net!” Dave did as he was told, forcing his weakened muscles to move. His arm slid free and he whistled in relief, flapping his ear fins and stretching his aching arm. He let his arm float freely in the water and made eye contact with Joel who was watching with a self-satisfied smile.

“Thank you so much!!” Joel once more seemed embarrassed by the gratitude and turned back to his task to hide his coloring cheeks. “But yes, I noticed that as well. Your eyes look like human eyes.”

“Your eyes are slits! And they’re entirely one color except for the pupil. How do you not scare away humans?”

“I mainly hunt at night, so they can’t see them anyways. I have better than average night vision as well.”

“Night vision!” The other seemed impressed. “Do you echolocate as well? I can imagine there would be times where there is no available light to see by, even with your bioillumination.”

“How on earth did you guess that!?” It was Dave’s turn to be impressed. For as much as Joel looked like a stereotypical merman, he certainly wasn’t a stereotypical ditz. “That’s absolutely right. I’m assuming you mainly hunt during the day, then. You should try pretending to be a merman to get humans into the water,” Joel started to smirk as he kept working, “unless you already do that?”

“Guilty as charged.” He wordlessly gestured to the captive siren’s left arm and Dave wriggled that arm free too, stretching both above his head, a delighted trill building in his throat. “If you’re nocturnal, that’s probably why your pupils are slitted so thin right now, right?”

Dave nodded. He sat up and started sawing away the net on his tail alongside the other siren. Joel sucked in water through his teeth, creating a whooshing, hissing sound.

“That may be an issue.” He paused in his work and looked the other in the eye. Dave followed suit.

“Why?”

“I’m not nocturnal, which means that I’ll either have to take care of you while you’re sleeping during the day, I’ll have to stay up all night to take care of you, or you’ll have to stay up all day.”

“You don’t have to take care of me-“

“Yes I do.” He cut Dave off. “Even though your voice sounds fine right now, don’t think I can’t hear your lungs struggling to work. You were struggling to sit up just now, and even lighting up, you were extremely dim. Not to mention,” he raised his voice to stop Dave’s attempt to argue, “you literally have cuts crisscrossing you entire body. Your fins are super fragile after being dried out for so long. I honestly don’t think you’d make it more than a mile away from here.”

Dave reared back, ear fins flattening and eyes narrowing. How _dare_ he?

“Just because you got me off of that boat doesn’t mean you get to tell me what to do.”

“I’m not telling you what to do, I’m just stating a fact.” Joel narrowed his own eyes but raised his hands in surrender. “Listen, let’s get you fully untangled and then you’re free to go. But, I’ll swim alongside you for the first five miles. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Awkwardly, the two sirens got back to work detangling the net while trying to avoid eye contact and conversation. The last strand of plastic material was slipped off of Dave’s tail and he stretched and flexed all the muscles that had been trapped for over a day. A few of his scabs opened, but they quickly closed again, small clouds of blood drifting away in the current.

The two drifted out from under the overhang into the afternoon sun-lit water. Dave winced at the brightness and used a webbed hand to shade his sensitive eyes. Without offering, Joel wordlessly swam upwards so the black and red siren was in his shadow.

“Thanks,” he called up to him, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had befell the two of them.

“Not a problem,” Joel accepted the unspoken olive branch. “So, in which direction are we headed?” Dave paused for a moment and focused, tasting the water and analyzing the direction of the sun.

“Northwest, I think,” he finally settled upon. Direction chosen, the pair started off at a leisurely pace. Well, leisurely for the entirely healthy siren. Dave quickly realized that maybe he should have listened to Joel’s comments about how poor of a state he is in. While he was stationary, he felt fine, great even, especially getting to change positions after hours of being tied up, but as soon as he started any actual physical activity, even something as simple as swimming, he felt like he was about to drop dead.

They had barely gotten a couple hundred yards out when Dave pushed away his pride and admitted he needed to be taken care of. He allowed himself to slowly sink to the sandy surface of the sea floor and closed his eyes in exhaustion.

“You’re gonna need to carry me back.” His voice was tight and embarrassed.

“I’ve got ya,” the other siren was already there, scooping him up and bringing him back, Dave's face blooming in color.


	6. Introductions

Joel laid Dave under the overhang for the second time that day. The injured siren immediately scooted into the farthest corner, curling up and hiding his flushed face behind his tail fin.

“I’m going to go get rid of the net. Don’t go anywhere, ‘kay?” He nodded, long tangled hair swaying slowly. Joel gathered up the remains of the net under his arm. A powerful flick of his tail, and he was off. He swam a good distance away from his cave before he surfaced, head tilted to listen for any boats. Rhythmic thrumming below the surface led him to a yacht near shore and miles upon miles away from his home.

Pausing a few hundred meters away from his target, Joel shook out the bundled up net. He carefully swam closer, deep enough below that none of the passengers would see his shadow. He got closer to the bottom of the boat, but more importantly, closer to the propeller of one of the boat’s engines. Staying a safe distance away, he let the net drift into the path of the motor, watching as it twisted and snared around it, producing a sound that made him cringe, but crippling its movement. Satisfied, Joel speedily made his escape.

Before he returned, he caught a couple of bass fish to feed his guest, tucking them under his arm like he had with the net. A low, resonant note vibrated through the water and stopped Joel in place, cutting out soon after. He shrugged it off and dove down to the entrance of his shelter.

Dave was still laying at the back of the platform, tail curled up around his torso. He was resting on his crossed arms. His hair was half-detangled, and there were a few hairs snagged on his claws. His body posture paired with his slitted eyes and ear-fins standing at attention reminded Joel of an image from a cat calendar he had seen in a boat he had sank once.

“I brought you some fish. You should probably eat to get your energy up and heal faster.”

“Thanks,” he pushed himself to the very edge of the shadows, taking the proffered fish and digging in. Joel drifted behind him, inspecting his body further.

Dave’s hair was hovering above his head, providing a clear view to the other siren. Dave’s back was entirely skin toned, the colored spots he would expect to see running along his spine missing. The blank expanse was marred here and there with scabs, crisscrossing where the net had dug into his flesh. His black scales were clean and undamaged by the ordeal, luckily. Tracing his eyes down the lean length of his tail, he finally landed on his red bioluminescent tail fin. By some miracle, the fin was not torn from dryness by the extended period of time out of the water, but it was still delicate and healing.

Joel watched as the tail he was inspecting flipped around to propel the remains of the first fish away. Dave ravenously started in on the second fish and Joel moved to rest on the rock alongside, tail curling around Dave’s back. He shifted his attention to the other’s hands. Black claws dug into the fish’s corpse, red webbing contrasting against both the silvery grey scales of the fish and the pale skin of the siren.

Joel found it so strange that he couldn’t retract his claws. What if he needed to handle something that required a gentle touch? The contrast of red and black common across his body also fascinated him. It was very striking, beautiful even, especially when against his nearly white skin. Though Joel had seen that Dave’s hair was in fact brown, underwater it was a silky black. It just didn’t seem practical as a hunter of humans—a species whose eyes were attracted to color and movement.

“What’s up? I can practically hear your mind working.” The remains of the second fish were flung away as well and the now-fed siren turned to face his companion, curving in a mirror image to the other.

“Just thinking about how scary you must look to humans. How do you ever lure them near the water?” He smiled to show he meant no offense.

“Well, we can’t _all_ look like pretty-boy mermen, now can we?” He grinned back. “Like I told you earlier, I’m nocturnal, so I hunt at night, which helps a lot to hide my appearance. If at all possible, I try to hunt during storms as well; visibility is lower and if someone goes overboard, the boats are still likely to go by there again.” Dave pushed himself backwards with his hands and floated down to rest at the back of the cave again. Joel remained at the edge a half dozen feet away.

“In the dark, my black scales basically disappear from view if you’re at the surface, and the glowing red is key to how I get people into the water. Watch!”

He folded his body in half so his tailfin was near his head and coiled the gently illuminated fin into a cylinder. He draped his hair over it and wrapped both hands around the bundle.

“That’s so cool!” He leaned forward onto his elbows. “From a distance, you’d look exactly like a human clinging to a buoy!” Dave smiled with his sharp teeth and let his body unfurl back into a relaxed sprawl, starting to comb out the knots in his hair once again.

“Yup, and with my long hair, I can cover up my head-fins and sometimes they mistake me for a woman because my chest is covered. My last catch, for instance. It’s a good tactic to draw humans closer to the edges of their boats without me having to do anything.”

“Yeah, you said you can’t sing? You obviously can, how else would we have gotten you free,” he spoke quickly to shut down Dave’s attempted interruption, “but I guess you don’t like to. How do you get them into the water instead of just tossing you a life ring or something?”

“I can sing notes usually, but I _cannot_ sing with lyrics by myself and without practice. What I do instead is beatboxing and rap. My sister and I both learned to rap and sunk boats together; reading books and listening to the music the humans had brought along helped us learn enough human language to not only converse, but write verses. Our parents taught us the basics, of course, but they’re more the singing type. We wanted to expand our vocabularies quicker to catch more prey.”

Dave wasn’t sure why he felt the need to tell this veritable stranger his whole life’s story, but he was sick so he decided to give himself a pass. To Joel’s credit, he only nodded thoughtfully at the information.

“That makes sense. Do you still hunt with your sister? Or does she hunt closeby?”

Dave felt nostalgic. “No, she traveled all the way to the oceans around Asia. She loved their music and their languages so much that she had to go to a place where she would be exposed to it every time she was near humans and she would be most effective hunting with her voice.”

“What about your parents?”

“I’m not quite sure where they are at the moment, either near Britain or the Middle East.”

“That’s so neat that your family is not focused on only one location and demographic of humans! I partly asked because if any of them were nearby, they could take care of you instead of me, a stranger of a different siren type.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine, Joel!” Dave felt the need to reassure his rescuer. “After all, you’ve already got me off of a fishing boat, carried me who knows how far, untangled me from that net, _and_ hunted fish for me!” His earnestness made Joel flustered for a moment once more.

“If you say so! I really hate to tell you what to do again, but you should really try to get to sleep. There’s a few hours left before sundown, so get some sleep now before your body will try to wake you up during the night. I have to get more food and other things to help you get better quicker anyways.”

Dave huffed half-heartedly and nodded, a bit miffed.

“Yeah, alright, that’s fair. I _am_ pretty tired, I guess.”

“I’ll be back soon, alright?”

“Alright. Thank you, again.” He stretched out belly down, pillowing his head on his forearms and letting his freshly detangled hair be played with by the gentle water currents flowing past. He closed his eyes to the sight of a sky blue tail disappearing behind a nearby boulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am bad at dialogue


	7. What to do?

Joel swam in a circle near the sea floor, spiraling up some loose sand as he wracked his memories for how his parents took care of him whenever he was sick or got hurt.

He’s never had an experience of an injury that lasted more than a week, thanks to his healing abilities. And if he got an external wound that didn’t fade away on its own, his parents would lick it clean and closed like it was nothing. Well, there’s _that_ sorted. He just has to try to make licking the other siren all over the least amount of awkward as possible.

He could feel his face heating up the water around him and ran a webbed hand through his hair, tugging a bit to bring him back to the moment.

But what to do about Dave’s illness and injured voice? He switched directions, spinning the sand the opposite way as he searched the farthest corners of his mind for what he should do.

He vaguely recalled being forced to eat large quantities of seaweed and other plants when he fell ill. That was a place to start. He stopped circling and made his way towards a kelp forest to gather some. He would need a lot from what he remembered, especially because this was an adult siren he was dealing with, not a juvenile. Reaching his destination, he extended his claws and effortlessly sliced through stems, forming a large bouquet of leafy plants.

With his prize in tow he quickly swam back home. He slowed and quieted down his movement as he drew nearer, just in case the other siren would be awoken.

He needn’t worry, however, as Dave was entirely dead to the world at the back of the cave, little bubbles escaping his slightly parted mouth on every exhale. That worried Joel, as they were underwater and shouldn’t have any air in their lungs, but every bubble out meant less air in, so the issue probably would correct itself.

Joel gently set down the bundle of seaweed and swam back to the clearing he was circling earlier, this time balancing on a nearby boulder and flicking his tail in thought. Actually, he should probably get more seaweed while he thinks. He swam on autopilot, still lost deep in thought.

His hazy memories of sickness always featured one or both of his parents holding him tight to them at all times. He closed his eyes and the sense-memory of low pitched music humming through his baby scales swept across his body. He remembered gently rising up and down as he fell asleep to their breathing. He vaguely recalled an explanation he had once received: the constant vibration and movement stimulated his immune system and helped him recover faster.

Second armful of seaweed gathered, he once more headed back through the dimming light. Dave was still sleeping, hair settled on the stone around his head. Fewer bubbles left his mouth, which Joel took as a good sign.

Joel pulled a large leaf from the pile and extended a claw. He stabbed and sliced a message in Morse code on the plant, in case the other siren woke during the night and he didn’t.

**SLEEPING NEAR YOU TO HELP HEAL**  
**EAT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE**  
**STAY CLOSE**  
**<><**

At the bottom he cut out the outline of a fish, because why not? It’s cute! He set the note on the rock a few inches in front of the stack of sea plant. And now for the awkwardness to begin.

Moving slower than a sea slug, Joel floated over Dave and squeezed down between the siren’s unconscious body and the rock wall. Dave started moving, momentarily stopping Joel’s heart. He simply rolled onto his side, pressing his back to the blue siren’s chest, still sound asleep. Joel started breathing again, settling down and trying to cool his flushed face.

In the interest of comfort, he used one of his arms to pillow his head. Heart still pounding, he let the other hover across Dave’s middle, sinking down to make Dave settle more heavily against Joel’s front. The sick siren still didn’t even start, soundly asleep.

The waters outside grew darker and darker, blacking out entirely as Joel closed his eyes and snuggled down to sleep, relaxing for the first time since this whole ordeal began.


	8. Translation

Dave woke at some point in the middle of the night, groggy and weak but feeling so much better than he had before he went to sleep. He yawned wide and shivered as his fluttering fins caused some cooler water to flow past his sleep-warmed body. He rolled back onto his stomach and propped himself up on his forearms to stretch his spine. He opened his eyes and his lax muscles stiffened immediately at what greeted him.

Laying next to him and sleeping like the dead was Joel. His face was serene. The pale moonlight lit up the water enough for Dave to pick out every detail. The other siren was pressed between the rock wall and where Dave’s back had been before he awoke and shifted onto his stomach. He hadn’t noticed before, but was now painfully aware of the arm draped across his lower back. A blue tail lazily twisted with its black and red counterpart. He was incredibly thankful that his face didn’t bioilluminate because if it did, he was certain that the light would’ve been enough to wake the other.

The nocturnal siren carefully lifted Joel’s hand and slid his upper body away from the other before gently setting it back down on the still-warm stone. Using both hands, he hefted up the other’s tail and unwound his from their unconscious curl around each other. Placing the appendage back down, he was surprised that the diurnal siren didn’t wake up during the movement. He was also surprised that he didn’t wake up when Joel joined him in slumber, though, so maybe it was just that the both of them were exhausted, pure and simple.

Dave was more than just exhausted, though. He was still injured and ill, a nagging voice reminded him. He threw back his head to get all his hair behind him and turned towards the exit of the overhang. A large pile of seaweed rested just underneath the edge of the roof and he approached curiously. One lone leaf was carefully placed before it. Dave lifted it up and saw that a message in Morse code was cut into it!

He was reminded of his sister who taught it to him (at his behest), working together with Dave to learn some common human languages, alongside some more uncommon ones. She was always fascinated by all the different languages humans had and how they communicate with each other, and she was tougher than anything. He missed her a lot.

On that positive note, let’s translate! Dave swam out to sketch his work in the sand. The first line was the longest and most difficult to decipher as he dusted off his long-unused knowledge of the language.

**SLEEPING NEAR YOU TO HELP HEAL**

He wanted to smack his forehead realization and embarrassment. _Duh!_ Why else would he cuddle up with him? Now that he knew the actual reason for the closeness, he faintly recalled his parents doing the same thing when he was small whenever he fell sick. He forcefully turned his attention back to his task rather than investigate what his original idea of what Joel's motives for the proximity might be was. He swept the sand smooth with his hand and started on the second line.

**EAT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE**

Did he mean the seaweed? Dave glanced over his shoulder at the pile and the sleeping siren that lay beyond it. Most probably, the note was written on a piece of it after all. Well, whatever. He cleaned the sand once more and translated the final and shortest line.

**STAY CLOSE**

Dave was cursed with a brain that overthought everything. Sometimes it was a blessing, but mostly, especially in a situation like this, it was a curse.

Did Joel mean ‘stay close’ as in don’t wander off? Did he mean physically and to curl back up with him? Or did it mean emotionally, stay close with him and become closer friends? Dave physically shook his head at that last thought. He decided upon a mix between his first two interpretations.

He swam back into the little cave and dragged the pile of plant to the center, reclining next to it so his back was to the outside and the heap served as a barrier between him and Joel. He smiled at the little cutout of a fish in the note before stuffing it in his mouth.

His teeth weren’t really designed to make chewing plant material easier, so he ended up just chopping the leaves into swallowable pieces with his razor teeth and getting stringy fibers caught in between them periodically.

As he ate, he recalled being made to eat kelp at least once a month in order to make him grow big and strong, or so his parents claimed. While he turned out to grow fairly long, he was more slender and lean than buff. He was certain the plant provided something essential that he and his sister weren’t getting as often from their mainly-human diet growing up, but he was also sure at least part of the reason they were made to eat it was so their parents could watch the faces they pulled as they struggled to keep their teeth clean.

Dave tossed another emptied stem behind him and started on the leaves of the next. He didn’t really eat plants that often as he rarely ended a hunt empty handed, and if he did, he could most often catch some nocturnal fish out and about. Occasionally, a human will toss the remains of their food into the water and Dave’ll eat it, and if he’s lucky enough to sink a yacht, the inside of the boat will have food aplenty. Wild plants that grew in the sea, though, he rarely if ever ate. Ironically enough, some of the food he’s salvaged from sunken ships has been labeled ‘dried seaweed’ either in English or Japanese or both.

Stomach nearly stuffed, Dave forced himself to finish off the leaves in his hands before his eyelids grew too heavy again. He really was sick if he was falling asleep so quickly just after waking up. He used his hands to crawl closer to the back, tail trailing along behind.

Dave shyly curled up on the stone next to joel, facing him this time and not nearly as close, but still near enough to feel the movement of the water caused by his chest rising and falling. In his peripheral vision, he could see the sky beginning to lighten up again. He tightly closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep, soothed by the predictable rhythm of the other siren’s breaths.


	9. Picnic

Waking up never was an easy task, but today _really_ tested Joel’s willpower. He was so warm and comfortable, and he could hear his guest’s gentle breathing, sounding healthy and relaxed. Fingertips flexed and joel realized the other siren had moved out from under his arm at some point during the night. Irrationally, he was hurt by this thought.

Joel pried his eyes open and sat up, leaning against the back wall of his home as he stretched and looked around. Surely enough, Dave was sleeping a foot or two away from where he had originally fallen asleep, curled up with his tail tucked under his chin rather than laid out. The bruises under his eyes were starting to purple and none of his cuts or scrapes showed any signs of disappearing anytime soon. Blooming across Dave’s arms and sides were dark bruises following the lines of his scabs.

If anything, Dave looked worse than he had when they had first arrived at the overhang. But, Joel knew he was getting better. The working of Dave’s lungs was less audible and no air bubbles floated out of his slack mouth. His muscles looked liquid in their relaxation. The swelling that had been present all around his body had died down. None of his scabs looked fresh, meaning they were all on their way to healing. While more bruises had appeared, their appearance meant his body was finally processing all of his injuries. His skin had regained some color from the ice sheet-white he had been blanched since his rescue.

A strange feeling of pride bubbled up in his chest and pulled the corners of his mouth up into a smile. He saved someone’s life yesterday. The siren before him was alive because of _him_. And maybe, he’ll make a new friend out of this whole ordeal.

Near-silent trilling sounded from Dave’s healing throat and Joel watched as his fins and fingers started to twitch, as if in a dream. On a whim, he trilled back just as quietly. The sleeping siren settled back down instantly with a final chirp of happiness, sliding down into deeper slumber.

_ Awwwwww! _

Joel didn’t bother to hide his cuteness-caused smile as there was no one else around to see. He twisted around to face the wall and clambered up and upside down, moving over and past Dave’s sleeping form. He flipped up over the edge and lay belly-down on the flat boulder that formed the roof of their shelter.

The sand directly in front of the mouth of the cave had something scrawled into the grains. Turning his head to the side, Joel saw it was a translation of the last line of the note he had left Dave in Morse code. A little further out were stripped kelp stems scattered on the ground. A few fish were nibbling at the scraps. Darting forward with claws out, Joel returned to his perch with two handfuls of fish for himself.

Though he had just eaten a couple of days ago, he expended a lot of his energy on freeing and taking care of Dave and felt like he needed a little extra boost. He catapulted the remains of his meal far into the distance with his tail. He swam down to collect the remaining stems and stacked them neatly nearby.

What to do? Joel found himself at a loss. He got Dave to eat plenty of seaweed, as evident by the heap in the cave having been reduced to less than half its original size. He slept with—shut up—_near_ him to help stimulate his immune system. Dave was breathing easy and not seemingly in any pain. He guessed the only thing left was to make sure Dave was getting enough food so he had enough energy to both heal and recover from his illness. And also Joel needed to heal his external injuries with his saliva. No way was he doing that while the other was asleep, though. So, that left him the option to go and find some good food for Dave.

About half a week prior, Joel had tracked a small boat making its way to an island nearly as small. It was loaded down with camping gear and two pissed off teenagers being piloted there by their father. If Joel has learned anything about human culture, human teenagers on a boat they don’t want to be on only look upset if they aren’t able to distract themselves, meaning the family was technology-free. He had planned on capsizing them on their way back to the mainland to steal their stuff, but he supposed he could visit them a bit sooner than anticipated.

He swiftly swam to the little island the family was vacationing on and ducked behind a boulder poking out of the shallow water. There, sitting on the beach, were the three humans with a basket, burying their feet in the sand and chatting.

_Perfect_.

Joel went under again and started slithering up the slope, stomach in the sand. None of the people on the beach were looking at the water, engrossed in their conversation. When the siren was a mere five feet beneath the surface, he howled like a demon, imbuing the yell with his power so it rumbled and rang up out of the water, resounding all around the island and echoing into the distance.

The effect was immediate. The father and his two children immediately stopped talking and huddled closer to one another, frantically looking around them, but not at the shoreline directly ahead, exactly what Joel wanted.

He took a moment to make himself look as scary as possible: he spiked up his hair, flared his fins as wide as possible, widened his eyes, illuminated his eyes and spots, and extended all ten of his razor sharp claws.

Like a torpedo, Joel rocketed up onto the dry sand, screaming in tongues and flashing his deadly fangs. He dramatically scuttled towards them, making a huge show out of stabbing into the sand and thrashing his tail. The three humans shrieked bloody murder and sprinted as fast as they could into the foliage, leaving everything behind. Joel sped up and chased them for a moment, just for show (and for fun). They were long gone, crying on the other side of the island

He let out a self-satisfied laugh and rolled over in the hot sand, giddy with success. He pushed himself back up and dragged his body back down the beach lazily. On the way, he snagged the wicker picnic basket that was left behind. The siren slid back into the water with his spoils and was gone.


	10. Lunch

Dave slowly woke up, eyes still closed, warm, content, and feeling extremely well rested. Through his eyelids he could see fight filtering through, meaning it was the middle of the day again. He snuggled into a tighter ball and lifted his tailfin over his face, dimming the light to try and simulate dawn so he could travel back to dreamland. Unfortunately, his body decided it was time for him to wake up, and he was unsuccessful.

Though a bit petulantly upset, Dave opened his eyes and stretched his body to fully wake up the sluggish muscles. Joel was absent and didn’t leave a note, upon investigation, but he wasn’t concerned. He felt _so_ much better after sleeping and eating that he felt capable of taking care of himself, at least for a while.

He swam out from the shadows, squinting and shielding his eyes. He descended and swam belly down against the sand along the edges of the rocks and boulders nearby, squealing quietly to echolocate deep into crevices and search for sleeping animals. He usually hunted at night which gave his similarly nocturnal prey a fair fight, but he needed food and wanted to get it himself. He was in no state to fight with anything.

Within a craggy hole between the bottom of a cliff and the ocean floor, reflections of sound painted a picture of a sleeping octopus, arms starting to move as it was roused by Dave’s noise. Before it could escape further back to where he couldn’t reach, he thrust his arm into the crevice, stabbing his claws into its body and hooking his fingers, dragging it out against the clinging of its suckers.

As soon as it was close enough, Dave finished it off using the claws of his other hand. The arms continued to move, suction cups tugging at Dave’s skin and scales. Belatedly, he noticed that the length of his forearm was bleeding, scraped against the sharp rock in both directions. The pain burned up into his brain and a fresh cloud of blood colored the water.

Great. The first time he tries to hunt for himself after his rescue, and he gets injured. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but his continued weakness made any loss of blood concerning. Better safe than sorry!

Dave wrapped the octopus’ limbs around his good arm and swam back, scraped arm tucked up to his chest. He untangled the carcass and let it wriggle next to the remainder of the kelp pile and he stared at his scrape. It was already starting to clot, but the pain throbbed, not only from the fresh wound but from the agitated bruises and cuts that were there before.

He sighed and reclined against the stone floor. Well, nothing else to do until Joel returns from wherever. He hummed a low sustained pitch, illustrating a continued view of the world outside in his mind. Vague outlines of small fish flitted by and ocean plants swayed in the current, but no siren swam into his range of echolocation.

Dave continued humming, watching his scrape finally stop bleeding and the octopus’ twitching die down, not really paying attention to either as he focused on the waters beyond their little cave. Finally, a creature with two arms and a long tail swam into his range. He cut out his humming and pushed himself up onto his hands, tail swishing along the rock beneath.

“Welcome back!” He called out as a shadow approached. A blonde head poked over the edge of the roof rock, a bright smile lighting his face.

“Glad to see you awake! I got us some food,” Joel dangled a basket into Dave’s field of vision.

“So did I!” He proudly pointed to the now barely moving octopus. Rather than follow where he was gesturing to, though, Joel’s eyes were caught on his arm, concern overtaking his positive mood. Dave looked down and inwardly cursed as he realized he had used his injured arm.

“It’s fine,” he was quick to placate the other siren, “I scraped it when I was catching the octopus and immediately came back. I’m being careful, I swear. I didn’t think I’d get hurt.”

“That’s great,” he flipped down and swam underneath the overhang to join dave, “but you shouldn’t be going out at all until you’re entirely healed. It’s barely been two days!” He gently but firmly took Dave’s forearm and inspected the fresh wound.

“I’m fine!” Dave ripped his arm away in frustration, but calmed himself. “It’s just a scrape. I’m feeling a lot better, illness wise, so I wanted to try to get some exercise.”

“Next time, I’d appreciate it if you’d tell me first so I can make sure nothing happens.” Joel still looked worried, but marginally more relaxed after he had seen how minor the injury was. Dave’s frustration grew again, but he tried to stay rational.

“I know you’re just concerned for me, and are trying to take care of me to the best of your abilities, but I am an adult, I know my limits.”

“Says the one who tried to swim back to your territory immediately after escaping humans.”

“Besides that,” his cheeks flushed in embarrassment, “it’s just a scrape. I immediately came back to rest afterwards. The worst it’ll do is scar.”

“Speaking of,” Joel seized the opportunity to change the subject, “I have healing abilities that I can use to heal all your cuts and scrapes, scar-free. Your bruises will stay until they heal naturally, though.”

“Really!? Why haven’t you said anything sooner!” Dave also wanted to put the incident behind them. “Once my wounds are healed, all that we have to worry about is my strength returning!”

Joel awkwardly looked away. “...it’s just weird, I don’t know! Let’s eat first, though.”

“Alright,” Dave nodded, grabbing his catch and cutting off a tentacle with his claws, passing it to the blue siren sitting beside him with the basket. Dave cut himself one as well and started chowing down, watching in amusement as Joel struggled to eat his. Besides his long fangs, Joel had human-like teeth, and the chewy octopus was not easily cut into bite-sized pieces with his blunt incisors.

Finishing his piece, he leaned over and bit off most of the long tentacle dangling out of the other’s mouth. “Maybe you should stick with whatever’s in the basket,” he teased with his mouth full. Joel’s face caught aflame and he busied himself in looking through the wicker container.

Dave compulsively swallowed as he realized what he had done, swallowing some water to help the large chunk of meat go down. That was awkward. He started eating the next arm, studiously looking away from his companion.

A colorful fruit floated up from the opened basket, sitting against the ceiling. Joel pulled out a stack of soggy sandwiches, almost dissolving from their prolonged soak. He squished them into a ball and took a bite.

“Have you been awake long?” Joel started a conversation.

Dave slurped the thin end of the tentacle into his mouth. “Only a couple of hours, maximum. I slept really well! I think I’m _still_ sick, though, because I usually don’t wake during the day.”

“Didn’t you say you felt better?”

“Yeah, but obviously I’m not, unfortunately.”

Joel chewed and swallowed another bite. “That sucks. How far out did you swim?”

“Not very far; I stayed against the sand and looked inside crevices and holes for sleeping animals.”

“Don’t you think that’s cheating?”

“I’m injured, how dare you!” They both chuckled, mouths full.

“Also, aren’t your eyes sensitive to light? It couldn’t have been comfortable or easy to see them.”

“That’s what echolocation is for, my friend,” he hummed as if to demonstrate, though he knew Joel couldn’t see anything as he wasn’t in his brain.

“Ooohhhhhh, that’s what that humming was!” He smacked a blue fist into the opposite palm, sandwich-ball floating next to his head. “I heard something when I was coming back home both yesterday and just now. It was _you!_”

“Yup!” Dave unstuck a tentacle from his tail. “Lower notes give me a wider field but less clear,” he hummed again, “and higher notes give me a clear image of a smaller area, like a cave,” he made a high-pitched noise in example and then shoved another piece of octopus into his mouth.

“That’s so neat! My hearing is really good compared to other sirens I’ve met, but I wish I had night vision and echolocation like you!” Joel’s eyes dazzled in awe.

Dave shifted bashfully. “Hey, improved hearing is nothing to sniff at! And besides, my normal vision is less than average, so it evens out.”

“Still, really cool.” He dug back into the basket and started munching on cut vegetables and a soggy pastry of some kind. Dave finished up the last arm and started in on the main body of the octopus. They ate in companionable silence, watching the reflections on the sand of sunbeams playing off of the waves above.

They both finished eating at about the same time, Joel offering the emptied picnic basket for Dave to deposit the rest of the carcass into and swimming away to dispose of it. The red and black siren reached up and grabbed the fruit off of the ceiling. It was a peach, a little less than ripe but tenderized by whatever jostling it received on its trip in the basket. Right on time, Joel returned again and laid next to where Dave had stretched out.

“Want some?” Dave held up the peach.

“Sure.”

Dave used a claw to cut the fruit in half along the equator, discarding the pit. He scooted closer and handed one hemisphere to the other. Sinking their teeth into the sweet treat, they let contentment roll over them.


	11. Impact

The moment broke when Dave sat up, Joel rising soon after. Dave awkwardly offered the other his freshly injured arm and Joel confusedly took it, gingerly.

“So, you said you could heal all my outside wounds?” He fished for a confirmation.

Joel’s face blanched and then burned up with a blush. “Oh, yeah...”

“What’s wrong?” Dave watched the other’s face return to its normal color.

“Nothing! It’s just...” Joel waved the hand not supporting the other’s arm in a vague, meaningless motion. “I don’t know, it’s weird.”

“Yeah, you’ve said that already,” he smiled encouragingly. _It can’t be _that_ bad._

“The only way for me to heal others with my accelerated healing abilities is for them to be exposed to my bodily fluids, the easiest of which to manage is saliva,” Joel recited like he had read off a script.

“Ah.” _It _can_ be that bad_. It was Dave’s turn to flush and he flapped his ear-fins to push his hair in front of his face, hiding behind the silky strands. “So, you have to lick me then?” His voice cracked on the verb.

Joel smirked sharply. “I wish.” He choked for a second on his horrible phrase choice, but pushed through to his next sentence despite it. “The water would just wash it all away, so in order to heal you underwater I have to close my mouth over your wounds to make sure no water gets in.” Both of their faces were burning up at this point, the blush creeping down their necks as well.

Dave bit the bullet and shook his injured arm, the wrist still enclosed in Joel’s gentle grasp.

“Let’s get it over with, then.”

Joel nodded and pulled the limb towards him. He bent down, and with a final moment of hesitation, planted his mouth over part of the scrape.

They both froze in shock that this was actually happening, but no backing out now! Joel softly ran his tongue against the scab. Dave was startled at the coolness, expecting body heat and instead getting the feeling of swimming through tunnels that have never gotten sun. The siren’s mouth lifted and they both watched the first half of the scrape fade into pale skin without a trace.

He descended again on the rest of the wound. Dave was watching intently, half in shock still, when he got surprised to death by Joel’s sapphire blue eyes meeting his. The injured siren immediately clamped his eyes shut and stayed as motionless as possible, feeling a cool tongue run along the rest of the surface wounds on his arm.

“I’m gonna move on to your other arm now, ‘kay?” A quiet voice reached his ears. Dave merely nodded, not trusting his voice.

He was suddenly hyperaware of the location of all his injuries. The skin on his arms, his sides, and his back was marred with cuts and rope burns from the net. He was grateful beyond all belief that his chest had escaped the ordeal unscathed because he didn’t know if he’d be able to handle the other siren’s mouth there.

Joel finished up the other arm, powering through. As he finished, he glanced up at the other’s face and nearly lost it. A pink flush painted across the bridge of his nose, mirroring what Joel could feel heating up his own face. His eyes and nose were scrunched up endearingly and his bottom lip was dangerously positioned between sharp teeth. An intrusive thought blazed through Joel’s brain: 

_ I’d like to have that lip between my sharp teeth instead. _

“Can you lay down on your stomach? I’ll get your waist, ribs, and back and we’re done.”

Dave choked out an affirmative alongside a jerky nod in response to the nearly-whispered request. He smoothly laid down, gathering his long hair in his freshly-healed arms and burying his face in it.

Joel planted a webbed hand on either side of his lean torso, leaning down and starting to heal the scabs on his sides. In a blur, he finished, backing off and pressing his hands over his burning face, struggling to calm his racing heart.

The now cut-free siren slowly pushed himself up, continuing to keep his face hidden beneath a curtain of hair. However, Joel could smell blood in the water still. A thin tendril on blood drifted through long black hairs, easy to see in the slowly fading sunlight.

“You’re still bleeding?” Though cripplingly anxious himself, Joel’s concern overpowered his desire to swim away and he brushed the hair away from the other’s face. Dave was facing down, eyes still squeezed shut, but he had bit all the way through his bottom lip, white teeth poking through.

Joel acted on impulse. He leaned forward, eyes slipping shut, and crashed his mouth onto Dave’s. The bloody lips immediately opened under his, teeth freeing themselves from his flesh. Joel gently ran his tongue along the puncture wound, both from the inside of the other’s mouth and the outside. A hot tongue tentatively touched his own cooler one, gliding along his own lips. An almost trilling whine was swallowed by the both of them. When a slender hand gripped his shoulder, claws barely just digging in, Joel’s eyes flew open and he ripped his mouth away in panic.

Dave looked dazed, confused, and absolutely debauched. His hair flew wildly around his head in the currents they had generated. His face was flushed a pretty pink, the color creeping along his shoulders as well. His captivating eyes were half-lidded, their pupils dilated into wide pools of midnight. His lips were red and shinier than they normally would be, and the tooth-pierced hole was gone.

“Uuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” he articulated intelligently. Dave reflected the sentiment wholeheartedly. “You’re healed now.”

“...Thanks,” Dave’s voice was husky. “I appreciate you healing my lips too!” Though his expression was giddy and dazed, his voice was lined with sincerity and want. But surely, the ‘kiss’ was only to heal his bitten lip, right? He’s probably overthinking things again.

“Yeah, uh huh, yup,” Joel nodded absently, out of his mind with relief that he somehow hasn’t alienated his guest by kissing him square on the mouth. “I’m tired wanna go to sleep?” His words ran together.

“M-hm.”

Both were happy and in disbelief, though both were also oblivious to the other’s happiness and disbelief. They curled up together at the back of the cave, to help Dave heal, of course, and both passed out in relief, unconscious within minutes and twisting their tails together as they dreamed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it took me 11 chapters to get them to kiss. kill me


	12. Cargo

The nocturnal siren woke in the middle of the night, a few hours after their... _incident_ and subsequent falling asleep. He opened his eyes into absolute pitch blackness, most likely because the moon and stars above were covered by clouds, so he glowed just enough to provide enough light for his night vision to be effective.

Dave was tucked up against Joel’s front again, this time facing him. His face rested inches away from the other’s neck and collarbone, and his arm was draped across the other’s ribs. Joel’s arm was wrapped around him as well. Their tails were twisted together again, this time more snugly wrapped around each other than the loose coil of the night before.

He felt great. The mortification of the evening past and the current moment couldn’t overshadow how well he had slept, even in the short period of time he was asleep for. His breathing felt normal and his sore throat felt a lot smoother. The lingering pain from cuts and scrapes was entirely gone, thanks to Joel’s healing abilities. He tongued his uninjured lower lip, burning up with a blush.

He lit up brighter and gently shook Joel’s shoulder to wake him up.

“Hmm?” He pried his eyes open and lazily lifted his head.

“I need to get up. Can you move your arm and tail?”

“Mmm,” his eyes closed in the low light and he dropped his head back down, “Fine.” With a final squeeze around Dave’s back, Joel lifted his arm and detangled their tails, immediately dropping back into unconsciousness.

He rolled away from his companion, dimming his fins and hair back down to nearly out. The black and red siren swam to the edge of the overhang and pulled himself up onto the top, laying on his back and staring up at the surface somewhere above. A flash of white illuminated the waves for a moment, allowing Dave to see their choppiness. If he felt up for it, this would be the perfect night to go hunting.

Quiet humming escaped the siren’s throat. He folded his arms behind his head and gazed up towards the invisible stars, periodically watching waves violently crash into each other when they were highlighted by a flash of lightning. It was near silent so far beneath the waves compared to the screaming wind, roaring waves, and booming thunder audible at the surface. The glowing siren switched to beatboxing, emulating the missing noises with additional emphasis after every lightning bolt.

He tapped his claws against the stone to add additional elements to his beat. By flapping his head-fins, he created a whooshing noise of water rushing past, filling in some of the empty space in the sounds. Imagined lyrics wrote themselves across his mind, unable to escape because his mouth was occupied making the majority of the beat. If only he had someone else to add vocals...

With a sigh that cut off the beatboxing, Dave stretched his arms up and played with the very ends of his hair. The previous evening certainly had been _something_, that’s for sure. For starters, Joel had gone out in search of food for him, and not just any old fish or bird, but human food. Then, once he returned, they ate together, sharing a peach for dessert. And finally, Joel healed all of his wounds that had drawn blood, with his saliva, might he add, and topped it all off by healing the hole Dave had punctured into his own lip with his teeth, resulting in an incidental kiss.

There was a lot to unpack there, but Dave just wanted to sink the entire metaphorical cargo ship.

He stopped glowing and pressed the heels of his hands onto his eyes, sighing again and beginning to overanalyze like he always does. He poked a claw into his side to draw himself out of his own head, not hard enough to breach the skin, but hard enough to grab his attention.

Everything Joel was doing for him was _platonic_. He needed to get that through his thick skull. Finding and bringing him food? Necessary to help him build up his energy and get well quicker as he couldn’t hunt very well at the moment. Carrying him around and snuggling close as they slept? Dave could barely swim a couple hundred meters away; in order for him to return to their cave he needed assistance. As for their close proximity as they slept, obviously it’s only to help kick start his immune system into working better.

Licking him all over his torso and lips? Dave groaned in mortification and dragged his palms down his face. Strictly platonic, he reminded himself. Joel has some sort of healing ability, and the only way for him to heal someone else is by bringing them into contact with his bodily fluids, by his own admission. So unless they wanted to deal with blood or other... liquids... his mouth had to get in contact with Dave’s injuries; the water would wash it away otherwise.

Surely, Dave was the only one reading too deeply into this. After all, the only reason Joel had to heal around his mouth in the first place was because Dave’d been trying to contain any and all reactions and thoughts in the moment. Plus, _Dave_ was the one who’d opened his mouth and turned it into a kiss—

He moaned in agony and humiliation. He rolled over and buried his face in his arms. Platonic. It had to have been platonic. They’d barely known each other for a couple of days now. _Pla. Ton. Ic._

Dave turned his head to the side and looked up at the surface from the corners of his eyes. Moonlight had filtered through the clouds, exposing the still rough but steadily calming waves from below. He returned to laying on his back and tapped out random rhythms on the rock with his claws. He consciously tried to empty his mind and watch the movement of the water, heart rate slowing and flush cooling.

An unidentifiable amount of time later, the siren emerged from his near-meditative state as he noticed the sky lightening even more, signifying dawn was approaching. Dave moved himself so his chest hung over the edge and stuck his head past it, looking in upside down, hair falling in slow motion to follow.

The little cave Joel had made his home was perfect for a couple of sirens: flat floor wide enough to stretch out and deep and tall enough for two to move around comfortably. Joel was still sleeping at the back, arm laying out on the rock like he was reaching out for someone. The small pile of seaweed still was stacked in the middle of the floor at the entrance.

He yawned as if on cue when a sunbeam broke through the rising dawn, the lingering clouds, and the depths of the ocean to shine off of Joel’s brilliant blue scales. Time for him to go back to sleep. He should at least _try_ to fix his sleep schedule before he had to leave.

The thought saddened him for two reasons. One, he really wanted to stay close to Joel and become his friend (nothing more, shut _up_), and two, the other siren was diurnal, meaning each would be asleep while the other was awake. Unless, he yawned again, flowing over the edge like liquid to pool next to the kelp pile, unless Dave and Joel woke the other a little before dawn and dusk respectively so they could hang out for a bit before the other settled down for slumber. His brain could have decent thoughts sometimes.

Plan concocted, he lazily closed the distance to the sleeping siren and gently shook his shoulder once more to wake him. Joel blinked the sleep out of his eyes and yawned, prompting another yawn from Dave.

“Hmm?” He vocalized. A feeling of deja vu swept through the more awake of the two.

“Hey, its dawn now. I...” did he really want to have this discussion now? He might’ve had time to process last night, but Joel’s been asleep. Dave wouldn't usually label himself a coward, but he decided to take the easy way out.

“I... need you to get up so I can get back to sleep. You’re hogging the best spot!” A genuine smile accompanied his tease; omittance isn’t lying, per se. And, after Joel was lying there all night, it’s probably warm, making it the best part of the rock floor.

“M’kay...” Joel smiled back and rubbed his eyes, stretching and pushing himself up. Dave took the opportunity to slide himself under his body and into the freshly vacated spot next to the back wall, facing it.

“Oh yeah, could you wake me right before dusk? Thanks. Good morning, by the way,” he called over his shoulder, not awkwardly or stilted at all, thank you very much. He clamped his eyes shut and flattened his ear-fins to his head, blocking out the outside world and trying to force himself to sleep. His embarrassment finally fully faded and Dave drifted off to sleep to the muffled noises of his companion humming a tune.


	13. Sand

Humming the tune of the song he’d reeled his latest catch in with, Joel swam circles around their little overhang until he heard his guest’s breathing even out into sleep. Once he was sure the other was asleep, he fell like a rock to the seafloor and scrubbed his face in the sand, plumes of the powder clouding the water.

_ What was I thinking!? _

He wanted to pull out his hair but refrained, settling face-down on the bottom of the ocean. Slowly, he felt grains settle on his back and scales as the agitated sand floated back down. Half-buried, Joel lifted his face out of the trench, rash from rubbing his face against the rough sand already healed. He shook off the sand and swept the sea bottom clean.

Last night was a disaster!! It went well, perfect even, but he’s ruined everything! He groaned and buried himself in the sand again, so very glad his companion was nocturnal and not awake to see his meltdown. Also, he was glad Dave was asleep so they didn’t have to talk about the disaster that was the evening previous.

A yell was muffled by the sand. Joel once again pushed the displaced sand back to where it came from, swimming up a bit to lessen the temptation of burying himself in the sand for a third time.

His face felt hot enough to melt said pure white sand below him into glass. Dave’s request for Joel to wake him before sundown crept back into his mind. He’s probably going to want to discuss what happened.

There’s no way he’ll be able to convince the other siren their lip lock was platonic. He was _there!_ If he tried to use the excuse it was to heal his damaged lips, the lie would be seen right through. Dave wasn’t an idiot. He was in close enough proximity (as their faces were _literally pressed together_) to tell what emotions Joel was feeling in the moment.

Joel groaned again and pulled his hands down his face. He realized that, once again, he was rolling around in the sand like a moody human teenager. What has his life come to?!?

He needed to clear his head. He launched off of the ocean floor and sprinted for the surface at an angle, leaping out of the water in an arc like a dolphin. Hitting the water face-first focused him on the present moment, not on the night before.

Circling down in a wide spiral, Joel swept past the mouth of his cave, scooping up the leftover seaweed and studiously looking at nothing else. He swam in the direction of the kelp forest again, slower than normal and consciously not focusing on anything. As contradictory as that was.

Tall green stalks grew nearer, gently wiggling in the currents. Joel discarded his armful as soon as he swam past the first line of leaves, swimming aimlessly deeper into the forest. Even the water here was tinted green, either from light refracting through the leaves or plankton and other microorganisms coloring the water. Joel tilted slightly to the left and let himself mindlessly maneuver in circles through the flora.

Contrary to his wishes, his mind flashed back to what happened last night, starting when Dave split the peach with him. At the time, he had naively assumed that the gesture meant something more, but after his own actions, he now knew it was just wishful thinking tainting an innocent event. After they’d finished the sweet treat, salty water washing any stickiness away, they’d started the main event.

Joel had originally tried to pretend he’d forgotten all about his promise to heal Dave’s wounds, desperate to avoid a situation he wasn’t positive he could handle, but Dave didn’t let him. He had to first explain to his guest what he had to do and endure the torture of watching his face flush almost as bright as his hair, unknowing of what his response would be. And when Dave _assented_ to the treatment…

Tightly corkscrewing upwards, Joel brushed along the very tops of the kelp, yanking out leaves here and there as he continued to wander. His brain decided to replay, in detail, _exactly_ what it felt like to heal Dave’s wounds. What it felt like to seal his mouth over a scrape, what it felt like dragging his tongue across a cut, and what it felt like pulling away from that soft skin and looking up to see Dave’s face adorably scrunched up and blushing.

A large leaf slapped him square across the face. He was most certainly _not_ paying attention at all to where he was going. He turned around to do the responsible thing and head home to sulk. Of course, not in the actual cave with Dave’s sleeping form, but nearby.

Destination in mind, his brain started torturing him again with how warm his lips were, how wonderful it felt to have another tongue play with his own, and, right before he’d pulled away, the hand that had settled on his shoulder.

Was it put there to shove him away or pull him closer? He’d never know, because he was a coward who pulled away, one part of his mind chastised him. No, he’d been the one to take advantage of Dave’s injured lips! He was a creep, not a coward, another part called out. A third part of his mind, and the quietest, tormented him with hope: if he asked he’d know.

The sand below was looking awfully tantalizing, especially for self-burying purposes.

The sun had already risen to its peak by the time Joel’s home appeared in his sight. He gave it a wide berth and settled in the sand behind the rock formation. No, not burying himself again, just laying there and tracing random patterns with his fingertips.

Joel started to hum again, drawing shapes that matched the contours of the sound in his mind. Once he had filled up the sand within arm’s reach, he tried to recreate whatever tune inspired the design, sweeping it blank when he inevitably gave up with a smile. After a few hours of this, though it was fun and distracting, he started to grow bored with the repetition. He needed something to shake it up.

_I wonder if Dave could—_

Gouging deep lines in the ground with his claws, he perished the thought and moaned in frustration, embarrassment, and agony. He could only ignore the problem for so long! And that avoidance time was swiftly drawing to a close, he noted, watching the angle of the sunbeams fall further towards horizontal.

As it was approaching dusk, Joel started patrolling the crevices in rocks nearly for any early-rising nocturnal animals. He’d never tried to hunt for prey that slept during the day as there was never a lack of diurnal creatures to fill his stomach. If he could catch something, maybe he could give it to Dave as a peace-offering of sorts to help their conversation go smoother. And, he was still healing. He needed all the additional nutrition he could get!

Determination paid off in the form of a freshly caught octopus, dragged out from its hideaway as soon as its first tendrils became visible to Joel. It was a bit smaller and differently colored when compared to the one Dave had previously caught, but he hoped it would suffice.

Finally reentering his own home after avoiding it and its sleeping occupant for the whole day, he shook off the dead octopus’ suckers and slowly drifted towards Dave. Hands hovering awkwardly in the water, Joel finally sucked in a deep breath and nudged at his shoulder, replicating the manner of his own awakening.

“Hey,” for some reason, a feeling of deja vu struck him. Dave made an inquisitive noise, not even twitching a muscle. “It’s almost dusk. You told me you wanted me wake you up around now, remember?”

“Oh, yeah.” His voice was thick with sleep and the opposite of enthusiastic. Joel tried not to wince. Dave started to shift around and he took that as his cue to retreat a bit farther away. Dave pushed himself up into a sitting position leaning against the rear wall, sleepily rubbing his eyes, pupils slitted thin. Both sirens let out noisy sighs, playfully smirking at each other and meeting each other’s eyes for the first time that day. Joel mentally prepared himself and opened his mouth to speak.


	14. Octopus

“I got you another octopus,” Joel started out strong, avoiding the issue entirely. “If you want to eat right now.” Dave nodded, still squinting his eyes.

“I probably should,” he walked his webbed hands across the floor to move closer to the mouth of the cave, curling around the randomly wriggling octopus with his back to the outside. Joel ended up trading positions with him: he retreated to the rear wall. Dave didn’t make any moves to start eating, just letting the tentacles suction onto his hands and then peeling them off. He was just as eager as Joel to have this conversation, which was to say not at all. He cut off one arm and played with it as he wanted for the other to speak first.

“Sorry that I made last night so awkward, with the whole saliva thing,” he began. “If we’d used my blood instead, I wouldn't have had to put my mouth all over you.” His face erupted with a blush that went unseen because Dave was still preoccupied with the tentacle in his hands.

“No, _I’m_ sorry, I’m the one—“ Dave started actually paying attention, “_Absolutely not_. If we’d tried to use blood, we’d have to keep drawing more because you’d heal too quickly.” He looked at Joel like he’d grown legs suddenly. “Saliva was the best, if not _only_, conceivable option.”

Shocked at the vehemence in his tone, both Dave and Joel froze for a moment. Dave took a bite out of the tentacle in his hands so he wouldn’t have to speak.

_Lucky_, Joel grumbled to himself.

“Well, either way, I’d still like to apologize for ki— uuuuuhhhhhhhhhh, putting our mouths together without asking or even warning you first. It was really rude and disrespectful of me, and I hope you can forgive me?”

Dave nearly choked himself trying to swallow his food as fast as possible to respond, pausing to gulp down a couple mouthfuls of water to chase it. “Please, don’t apologize to _me! I_ should be apologizing to _you! I’m_ the one who bit through my own lip in the first place. If anything, I should thank you again for healing it for me. I’m sorry I put you in that uncomfortable situation where you felt like you had to—“

“Oh, it didn’t make _me_ uncomfortable, I was more worried I made _you_ uncomfortable!”

“I didn’t feel uncomfortable either.”

Dead silence as both inspected the other’s face for any signs of deception.

“So… are we good then?”

“Yep. Let's just forget all about it, sound good?”

“Sounds great.”

It, in fact, did _not_ sound great, and neither one of them would forget any time soon. But with a couple of fake smiles, they crammed those feelings into the deepest parts of their minds and suffered onwards.

Dave finished up the first of the octopus’ eight arms slowly, eyes wandering everywhere around the cave except the other occupant. He was dying to break the painful silence. Inhaling deeply, he cut off another tentacle.

“D’you wanna try octopus again?” He swirled his hand, limp tendril trailing behind like a human dancer’s ribbon. Joel visibly snapped back to reality and compulsively nodded. Slowly he moved towards the other siren, settling beside him when Dave shifted to open up some space. The two laid on their stomachs propped up on their elbows, watching the shadows lengthen and the waters darken as the sun set. Dave chopped himself a tentacle.

“I know your teeth aren’t the best at chewing this stuff,” he smiled when Joel gave him a look that effortlessly translated to: _‘you think!?’_ “Maybe try chopping it into smaller pieces with your claws before starting to chew?”

The pair both experimented with slicing the arms down to size. For Dave, it didn’t matter. His full set of razor sharp teeth made quick work of the chewy flesh, reducing it to swallowable pieces even if he didn’t first cut it with his claws. Joel, on the other hand, needed to make his pieces a bit less than bite-size before they were effortless enough to eat. By the time he managed to finish his one, Dave’d already started on another.

“Yeah, I’m just gonna stick with my regular food. This isn’t worth it,” Joel apologetically refused the next offered tentacle.

“At least eat the main body,” Dave cajoled, speedily removing the remaining arms.

“No no no, you need the food more than I do.” He lifted his hands to hold off the offer.

“Please, I insist,” he playfully imitated a human waiter, folding one arm behind his back.

“I’ll probably have the same trouble I had with the tentacles!”

“Joel.” Both of them felt warm inside at his use of the name, “at least eat some of the organs. You can’t survive on just a couple fish after all you’ve been doing for me!”

“Fine! What are you, a seagull? I’m not your hatchling, jeez! You do know that _I’m_ supposed to be taking care of _you_, right?” Joel teased, accepting the roughly orb-shaped octopus body and slicing it open with a blue claw.

“And you’re doing a wonderful job at it,” Dave praised. Rather than respond, Joel busied his mouth with eating like Dave had earlier. If either one of them had been looking at the other, they’d have seen a mirror like reflection of their own expression on the other’s face: a mix of pride, contentment, and excitement.

“What do you usually eat? Besides humans and fish,” Dave broke the companionable silence.

“I eat human food very regularly, actually.”

“Really?” He sounded curious.

“Yup! Sometimes when I’m chatting up a human before I drag ‘em down, they decide to share their food with me! And even if they don’t, once they’re dead I typically go through their stuff.”

“So you usually hunt for lone humans?”

“Alone or in pairs they’re easier to manage, and I can control them all the fewer there are.”

“Makes total sense. I usually end up hunting around boats with larger crews, but I always try to single out one or two of them. That typically works out for me because fewer of them are awake at night. I only get human food when one throws stuff overboard or if I’m lucky enough to sink them.”

“What about besides octopi and fish?”

“Eels, snakes, sea stars, I’ve eaten pretty much everything that comes out in the dark.”

“Tasty.”

“Hey, don’t knock it till you try it, pretty-boy!” Dave flapped an ear fin to curtain his face behind his hair as he cringed at his slip-up. Now was _especially_ not the time to talk like that.

“I guess I’ll have to at some point,” Joel finished his thought before he shut down to over analyze the last sentence said to him. Before he could be lost too deep in thought, though, he yawned wide, long fangs glittering in the waning sun. “Okay, time for me to get to sleep”

“Uh, goodnight, Joel.” Dave awkwardly said.

“Goodnight, Dave.” He was still lying next to the other siren, octopus remains in his hands. With an inward curse, he implored the healing siren, “Would you mind getting rid of this for me?” He held out the carcass.

“Sure,” Dave looked grateful to have an excuse to exit the overhang. “Goodnight!” He snatched it and disappeared behind a boulder at a speed that should’ve made Joel anxious for his health but he was too busy yawning.

Joel scooched into the middle of the floor and was out in seconds from a full belly and relief coursing through his veins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah theyre just going to pretend nothing happened and then privately agonize over it


	15. Starfish

“G’morning,” the words were slurred. Joel’s eyes flung open in concern; he flew upright to a lack of reaction from Dave.

“What did you do?! Are you okay!?” The nocturnal siren’s eyes were half lidded and he was exhaustedly slumped in on himself, dimly lighting the cave with a red glow in the pre-dawn. Joel illuminated brighter than him, tinting the light bluish-purple. He raced over to wrap an arm around him to support him, though that wasn’t really necessary underwater.

“M’fine, jus’ tired,” Dave was whiny and yawning as he weakly shoved at Joel’s arm. “M’ _fine_.”

Joel reluctantly backed off, not buying it. He satiated his worry by scanning the other from the top of his head to the tip of his tail for any injuries. No damage, but clinging to the shiny black scales were three sea stars, holes stabbed through their bodies but suckers still convulsing.

“Got you something,” Dave swept his tail inwards, red fin brushing against Joel’s chest. He peeled one of the stars off of himself, offering it to the blue siren. Joel took it, confusedly. “I thought you might wanna try starfish cuz you probably haven’t before,” Dave proudly explained.

Joel was touched by the thought, but it didn’t override his concern. “Did you spend all night looking for these?” The starfish were all the same type, a brownish-red and about the size of his handspan. Dave nodded, satisfied smile not fading even as he yawned again. His pupils were slitted from the additional light and his eyelids dropped lower.

“You’re still getting better!” Joel had to scold him.

“What are you, a seagull? I’m not your hatchling,” Dave quoted back at him. Joel dimmed to help hide his flush, light tinting into a redder purple.

“You’re falling asleep as we speak!” Dave was leaning heavily on a propped up elbow, the rest of his body lying limp on the floor.

“No’m not!” The exhausted siren petulantly responded, ripping off one of the remaining starfish and biting off one of the arms in one mouthful. Joel huffed and nibbled at the tip of one of his star’s arms. “Try from the middle, it’s less like octopus,” Dave mumbled through his chewing. Joel attributed his understanding of the near-unintelligible noises to his superior hearing.

He did, slitting open the center to get at the insides. It was completely different to octopus, and a little reminiscent of sea urchin. Joel was more into it now and quickly finished off the middle, arms left without a body. Dave was chowing down on the last sea star, three out of five arms already eaten. Joel finished off the arm he had started eating, but he wasn’t really hungry.

Dave had consumed both of the stars in their entirety, nothing left behind. Wordlessly, Joel shoved the four leftover arms under his nose, hoping to get the exhausted and healing siren to build up some more energy. Luck was on his side and Dave ate them completely on autopilot, eyes struggling to remain open.

The pitch black waters outside started to lighten into grey, dawn beginning its ascent. Though dawn was rising, Dave was not. His eyes fell shut and tried and failed to open, bioillumination fading as he finally succumbed to sleep.

Overworked muscles relaxed at last and the siren collapsed in slow motion to sprawl face-down on the stone floor. Joel could hear his breathing echo against the rock, louder than it would normally sound. The still awake siren dimmed his own light to just enough for him to see by, natural light levels still increasing as daybreak approached. Black and purple-looking hair floated down to rest like an abstract splatter of paint on the surface of a boat, contrasting against the grey-blue appearance of the stone beneath.

Now fully awake, Joel sighed and shook out his remaining worry and tension. Slowly approaching Dave, he gently rolled him over, fading bruises looking darker in the blue light. Joel lifted his upper body off the ground, wrapping an arm around his torso and moving them both along with the other arm similarly to how he had rescued the siren off of that fishing boat days prior. And just like before, a head lolled on his shoulder.

Joel’s body locked up when Dave shifted in his grasp, spinning around so their fronts were pressed together and throwing both arms around his companion, burying his face in Joel’s neck. He immediately fell back asleep, tail unconsciously wriggling around Joel’s.

What does he do _now?_ He’s trapped leaning against the back wall with an armful of clingy siren weighing him down.

Scraping his back against the rock behind him, Joel started leaning to the side, using his free arm to lower himself down. Once he’d tilted far enough, the arm Dave’d wrapped around him drifted down as it was pulled away by gravity.

Twisting his torso, he lay suspended over the other, quickly moving his other arm to support Dave’s head as he lowered him to the ground. Agonizingly slowly, Joel set him on the floor, propped over him with hands planted on either side and tails tangled together.

Clawing at the ceiling, Joel was able to free himself and rocket to the surface of the water, screaming with all his might into the rising dawn. What is he going to _do!?_ The sweet taste of the starfish hung on the back of his tongue, ever present and reminding him of everything that had happened since he was woken up this morning, no matter how badly he wanted to purge it from his memory.

Dave was just being a decent guy. They’d discussed different foods the evening prior and he’d obviously wanted to give Joel the chance to try something new. The fact that he’d hunted for the starfish to the point of overexhaustion didn’t mean anything more than he was just determined. And, he was still recovering! He was bound to tire quicker, so it wasn’t like he’d been searching all night for sea stars for Joel or anything.

They’d been sleeping together—Joel halted his thoughts to yell again through his gritted teeth—_near_ each other ever since they’d met to kick-start Dave’s immune system into action. It was natural that, unconsciously, Dave would search him out and curl close. It didn’t mean anything more.

Airplane engines chopped at the air in the distance so Joel resubmerged himself to avoid any potential human contact. He retreated to about twenty feet under the water: deep enough to avoid any and all interactions with humans from the surface but shallow enough to watch the sun rise clearly.

How to repay his friend? Because they were undoubtedly friends at this point. He hoped.

Tasting the sea star’s insides came back to the forefront of his mind, specifically the similarity he noticed to the flavor of sea urchin. He doubted Dave had ever tried it, given that sea urchins are mainly found nearer to shore. Dave seemed more the deep-sea type. _That_ was how he would return the favor. Plan formulated, he swam towards the mainland, specifically towards any rocky beaches that were unlikely to attract humans. He had sea urchins to gather.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this has turned into ‘dave and joel plan dinner dates for each other: the fanfiction’


	16. Turbulence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not dead lol! though i did try. im back and here to stay

Tendrils of exhaustion tightened around Dave’s consciousness, playing tug of war with the unusual sputtering noise steadily pulling him back to wakefulness. His bodily awareness increased, drawing a groan from his throat as he fought to open his eyes. It felt like his entire body was one giant bruise; all his muscles were sore and his scales itched in discomfort. He felt warm all over, pleasantly starting from his full stomach and radiating out to unpleasantly feverish heat across his face. When Dave lifted his head and blinked blurry sleep out of his eyes, it felt like he had expended the same amount of effort he would utilize if he tried to move one of the old anchors littering the depths of his domain.

Joel proved to be the source of said unusual sputtering noise. He hovered just outside of the mouth of the cave spitting and hissing with a pinched look upon his face. As Dave watched, he reached into his mouth to scrape at his tongue with his fingertips, only to pull them back and attempt to flick off the dark liquid clinging to them.

“What’s wrong?” He asked thickly, leveraging himself up onto his elbows. Two glowing eyes like twin blue stars slid over to acknowledge that he was awake before returning to their owner’s tainted hands.

“I went to go get you some sea urchins so you could try them and there was a metal barrel leaking this black stuff into the water. There were a lot of rocks at the beach I picked and one of them probably stabbed it and—whatever. The point is, I didn’t know what it was, so I tried to surface next to it—because it was floating on top of the water—and my head got covered in the stuff. It got in my nose and mouth too, and it’s just been awful. And it _won’t, come, off!_”

Joel punctuated his last few words with aggressive flings of his hands, gritting his teeth and narrowing his eyes so the words came out in an angry near-growl. A passage in a book he had read once rose muzzily to the surface of Dave’s mind.

“I think you swam yourself into an oil spill, mate.” Dave squinted his own eyes in pain, closing them for a moment. Even the steadily dimming twilight seemed too bright and the world in front of him spun. _Mate?_ He thought he heard an awe filled voice whisper, but it could have been from inside his own muddled head. “Yeah, we’re friends, aren’t we?” He responded out loud anyways.

Silence replied to him, so maybe he _was_ imagining things. He lifted his head up slightly to rest his chin on his hands. When the head rush died down and the tunnel left his vision, Dave watched Joel try to scrape off the oil coating his fingers with a claw, only succeeding in covering that finger as well.

“Maybe try scrubbing in the sand?”

Joel froze and stared at him in embarrassment for an unknown reason. Dave was far too woozy to even try to think about why that would be the case.

A blink, and suddenly the blue siren was gone. Gut-twisting panic drove a spike down Dave’s spine. _Where did he go!? What happened?!_ He scrambled forward, the world smearing around him. He peered over the impossibly high ledge, vertigo stirring up his insides even more. There, a few feet down, was the missing siren. He was taking Dave’s advice and was nearly finished scrubbing off the oil slick. The distance between them stretched and oscillated like a spring, the light emanating from Joel fluctuating in saturation from nearly purple to painfully white.

Dave realized his head had lilted to the side as he pondered these oddities and straightened back up. He might as well have straightened into the path of a boat’s propeller; pain chopped into his head with every beat of his heart, splitting it in two.

“_Augh—_“ a distant voice cut itself off with an agonized keen.

“Dave!? Dave, what’s wrong?” A second voice frantically questioned. The first voice didn’t respond, but the keen evolved into whining sobs. Sharp points of pain buried themselves in the top of his head, distracting from the torturing headache. He felt his body being moved like experiencing a dream.

“No— Don’t claw yourself— Here,” the second voice fussed. Cool hands wrapped around his fiery hot wrists, pulling on them and removing the smaller dots of pain from his head. He’d clawed himself? Was that first voice his? Dave opened his mouth to check and only choked out a single syllable before agony crushed it into a whine.

“_Joel!_”

“I’m right here.”

A fin brushed against Dave’s tail and the hands squeezed comfortingly around his wrists. Dave chased the contact desperately, sloppily coiling his tail around Joel’s and surging forward to press his cheek to the healthy siren’s chest, hoarsely groaning in relief as the coolness of the other’s body soothed his fever. His head pounded in agony and he squeezed his eyes shut even tighter, wrapping Joel in a hug as soon as his arms were released.

Out of sync with his headache, the heartbeat of his companion beat strongly, gradually slowing down as he relaxed. Gentle humming vibrated through their bodies as Joel sang with his mouth shut, nonverbally urging for Dave to  **relax** and  **rest** . The message took root in his ill mind, leading him to release his tense muscles and focus closer on the melody over his migraine.

On the edges of his hazy mind, Dave thought he felt open-mouthed kisses being dropped on the crown of his head, washing away the self-inflicted puncture wounds decorating his scalp. He was more certain of when Joel gently took them to the ground, giving Dave a moment to readjust himself tighter around him before continuing to hum.

Dave’s own heartbeat rushed in his ears. The roar couldn’t drown out the steady rhythm of the heart in the chest underneath him, though. Their tempos matched up and marched forward into Dave’s brain, chasing out the pain afflicting him. Joel was still singing when Dave surrendered back into sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for making it this far! sorry for the cringe lmfao. blease, if youve managed to read to this point, drop a kudos, it does wonders for my self-esteem (read:ego (jk i hate myself))


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